Combi feeding from birth?

[peanutbutterlove]

My son was born yesterday. First night home tonight and the colostrum is not satisfying him so have just made him a bottle of formula. We'd always planned to combi feed but from three weeks when bfeedjng established. Has anyone successfully combi fed from birth?

Congrats on your DS! So lovely to have a one day old

You may well find your DS is more 'satisfied' when your milk comes in (usually day 3ish), the first few days are a bit relentless but perfectly normal for your ds to want feeding often (eg hourly). Get some lansinoh cream to avoid chapped nips!

But to answer your question with both dd1 and dd2 I mixed fed from 6 weeks. Many people do combi feed from birth, but it can get into a bit of a vicious cycle (your milk is less stimulated, so you use more bottles, so milk is even less stimulated etc)

I think you are quite fortunate if your ds is alert and looking for feeds often (both my dd were jaundiced so I really had to work hard to get them interested in feeding/awake enough to suck).

My advice us to try and ride out until your milk comes in (easier said than done I know, especially when you might already be exhausted from the birth). If your dh is supportive get him to bring you drinks and choc during feed, then hand over ds for burping/nappy change while you snooze until next feed.

If your ds is persistently frustrated with feeds do get lots of opinions on tongue tie - it is commonly missed and easily fixed.

Enjoy your tiny bundle, those early days are so special

Not right from birth, but about one week on with DD1. I had a fully functioning boob and one non functioning boob, and just could not fill her up on my own. I was very lopsided for several months and had the same again with DD2, but did feed her for 6 weeks myself.
I wasn't very confident in feeding out and about with DD1 so having a bottle suited me/us.
I am very much of the opinion what makes you the most comfortable is probably the best solution. Good luck.

Hi, have been wondering the same, although I've been mixed feeding since day 1. DD is 5.5 weeks. I am finding that she is often not satisfied from the breast. Hospital said to stop the formula top-ups when the milk came in but I was engorged for ages and struggling to satisfy her even then so I carried on. I also have two older DC who like me to take them to school, pre-school, to parties etc so I often leave DD with DH or our nanny with formula for an hour or two (I'm planning to go back to work in 6 months and didn't want to lose our brilliant nanny, so I have help Mon-Thur, and often feel like I need to use the £ investment to spend time with my two young sons as well as DD).

I asked my HV about this and she said 'if it works for you, carry on.' DD is putting on the right amount of weight for her centile (25th) and is sleeping well at night (waking once or twice for a breast feed). Because of the other DC and because she seems to be 'less satisfied' at different times every day, there is no pattern to when we use the formula, but it totals to about 50-150mls a day. I was quite a 'purist' bf-er with my boys and would never have done this with them but it seems to be rubbing along alright. One thing I will say is that my boobs tend to fill up randomly, leak a lot more and ache/hurt a lot more (compared to last time), possibly because no two days are the same. If we didn't have our nanny and therefore I wasn't going off and doing so much stuff with the boys, I probably wouldn't be doing it but I feel like they need me as much as she does. And the fact is, she is often hungry after a feed still and has been since the start (altho I get that it's a vicious circle and would improve if I just feed through it for a few days and dropped the formula).

Finally, with my first I struggled to get him onto a bottle after months of EBF and with BTW coming relatively soon, at least this way I won't have any trouble getting her onto full time formula.

Hope that helps! Sorry, long ramble, but I guess this is proof it can be done.

Yes I am. Currently typing one handed whilst I bf my 7 week old!

My milk supply took ages to come in. We had to stay in hospital and I had a screaming starving and slightly jaundiced baby. So we topped up with formula and we're still doing it. I'm very anaemic so my supply isn't the best (same happened with my first baby). But generally I feed him first and then we give a bottle. He has no issues switching between the two.

My HV has been very supportive and has said if it works them carry on, he's still benefitting from my breast milk.

Also means DH can do the bottle feeds when he's home!

Have you tried expressing too?

The first few nights with a newborn are tough. It's not that your colostrum is 'not satisfying him'. He has to feed constantly as his tummy is only the size of a marble and BM, being the perfect food for him, is processed quickly. He will also fuss and cry a lot because he's just had a major environmental shift. Keeping him skin to skin and offering the breast constantly will help him make this transition. He will seem 'satisfied' after formula, because it is harder for him to digest, but settling and sleeping lengthy stretches is not normal, particularly at night, for a baby in the first few days of life. Please trust that your baby is demonstrating normal newborn behaviours, is well-fed, and hold off on the formula until you intended to use it. Colostrum, and as much of it as possible, is so good for a newborn.

the very special early days with feeding are always tough on the baby and you give it a few more days before you combi feed you need the baby to suck as much as possible to bring the milk in

If not satisfied it could be he just needs to be kept on the boob and is actually tired so wants to sleep.

Either that or tongue tie. They don't need a huge amount in the early days so would be surprised he's not satisfied for hunger unless there's something up.

The early days are confusing - it is worth talking to a BF counsellor for advice.

I did from birth. He was in scbu for a couple of days and fed through a tube so when I started feeding he was ahead of me in terms of how much milk he needed and I could give. So initially every feed was:

• me feed him
• feed him previously expressed milk
• feed him formula
• go and express

This meant that he happily has always taken both bf and ff which has been amazingly helpful.

We gradually reduced to mainly bf, but kept ff before bed, and occasionally other times. I would definitely do this for any future kids.

How that helps.

Add me to the list. I had no plans to breastfeed for longer than 2 weeks (I didn't know anyone who'd managed to feed for long) so we introduced formula from day 1. 8 months later I'm still mixed feeding happily and am able to leave DS when/if I need to.